Volvocine cell walls and their constituent glycoproteins: an evolutionary perspective

Woessner, Jeffrey P.; Goodenough, Ursula

doi:10.1007/978-3-7091-9378-5_14

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Contrary to a few erroneous early reports that have unfortunately been perpetuated in some textbooks, the C. reinhardtii cell wall does not contain cellulose. The wild-type wall comprises seven principal layers (241). Genes for some wall components have been cloned and sequenced, and many mutants with defects in cell wall biogenesis have been isolated.…”

Section: The Cell Wallmentioning

confidence: 99%

CHLAMYDOMONAS AS A MODEL ORGANISM

Harris

2001

Annu. Rev. Plant. Physiol. Plant. Mol. Biol.

610

447

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The unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas offers a simple life cycle, easy isolation of mutants, and a growing array of tools and techniques for molecular genetic studies. Among the principal areas of current investigation using this model system are flagellar structure and function, genetics of basal bodies (centrioles), chloroplast biogenesis, photosynthesis, light perception, cell-cell recognition, and cell cycle control. A genome project has begun with compilation of expressed sequence tag data and gene expression studies and will lead to a complete genome sequence. Resources available to the research community include wild-type and mutant strains, plasmid constructs for transformation studies, and a comprehensive on-line database.

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Section: The Cell Wallmentioning

confidence: 99%

CHLAMYDOMONAS AS A MODEL ORGANISM

Harris

2001

Annu. Rev. Plant. Physiol. Plant. Mol. Biol.

610

447

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“…Amazingly (if we have not lost our sense of wonder), these algae invented sex [296] using HRGPs as sexual agglutinins for mating recognition [297]. Thus, small changes in their adhesion specificity resulted in sexual isolation and speciation represented by the 450 known species of Chlamydomonas [298]. The surprising conclusion [299] that the volvocine radiation from Chlamydomonas to Volvox is a 'recent event' [295] that occurred within the past 75 million years seems asking too much even from the versatile HRGPs.…”

Section: Sometimes a Ziggurat Is Just A Zigguratmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life behind cell walls: paradigm lost, paradigm regained

Lamport

2001

CMLS, Cell. Mol. Life Sci.

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This review of the living cell wall and its protein components is in two parts. The first is anecdotal. A personal account spanning over 40 years research may perhaps be an antidote to one stereotypical view of scientists as detached and humorless. The second part deals with the meaning of function, particularly as it applies to hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins. Function is a difficult word to define objectively. However, with help from such luminaries as Humpty Dumpty: "A word means what I want it to mean, neither more nor less," and Wittgenstein: "Giving examples of usage ... is the only way to talk about meaning," it is possible to construct a ziggurat representing increasingly complex levels of organization from molecular structure to ecology. Forty years ago I suggested that hydroxyproline-rich structural proteins played a key role in cell wall functioning. But because the bulk of the wall is carbohydrate, there has been an understandable resistance to paradigm change. Expansins, paradoxically, contribute greatly to this resistance because their modus operandi as cell-wall-loosening proteins is based on the idea that they break hydrogen bonds between polysaccharide chains allowing slippage. However, this view is not consistent with the recent discovery [Grobe et al. (1999) Eur. J. Biochem 263: 33-40] that beta-expansins may be proteases, as it implies that the extensin network is not a straightjacket but a substrate for expansin in muro. Such a direct role for extensins in both negative and positive regulation of cell expansion and elongation may constitute a major morphogenetic mechanism operating at all levels of plant growth and development.

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“…On the other hand, the set of compositions of the ECMs of E. elegans individuals is semilinear because E. elegans is characterized by PsCF, whereas the set compositions of the ECMs of V. globator individuals is non-linear because V. globator is characterized by PsλuSC. Indeed, these three volvocine algae are composed of a few ECMs, the dispositions, amounts, and compositions of which vary in a taxon-specific way (Kirk, 1999;Woessner and Goodenough, 1994). These variations have a considerable influence on the forms maintained by ECMs.…”

Section: Necessity Of Formsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the volvocine algae range in complexity from the unicellular Chlamydomonas to the multicellular organisms in the V. globator. Therefore, this evolutionary pathway has been extensively studied, especially the development of the extracellular matrices, which are closely related to the multicellular form (Kirk, 1990(Kirk, , 1999Kirk et al, 1991;Miller and Kirk, 1999;Nozaki, 1990;Nozaki and Kuroiwa, 1992;Sumper and Hallmann, 1998;Woessner and Goodenough, 1994).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A simple classification of the volvocine algae by formal languages

Yoshida

Yokomori

Suyama

2005

Bulletin of Mathematical Biology

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There are several explanations of why certain primitive multicellular organisms aggregate in particular forms and why their constituent cells cooperate with one another to a particular degree. Utilizing the framework of formal language theory, we have derived one possible simple classification of the volvocine algae-one of the primitive multicells-for some forms of aggregation and some degrees of cooperation among cells. The volvocine algae range from the unicellular Chlamydomonas to the multicellular Volvox globator, which has thousands of cells. The classification we use in this paper is based on the complexity of Parikh sets of families on Chomsky hierarchy in formal language theory. We show that an alga with almost no space closed to the environment, e.g., Gonium pectorale, can be characterized by PsFIN, one with a closed space and no cooperation, e.g., Eudorina elegans, by PsCF, and one with a closed space and cooperation, e.g., Volvox globator, by PslambdauSC. This classification should provide new insights into the necessity for specific forms and degrees of cooperation in the volvocine algae.

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Volvocine cell walls and their constituent glycoproteins: an evolutionary perspective

Cited by 11 publications

References 44 publications

CHLAMYDOMONAS AS A MODEL ORGANISM

CHLAMYDOMONAS AS A MODEL ORGANISM

Life behind cell walls: paradigm lost, paradigm regained

A simple classification of the volvocine algae by formal languages

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